Tag: Trump

What if there was a product that could offer a quick fix for the common cold, cure the dreaded hangover after a long night out, give you an energy boost after pulling an all-nighter on your presentation, or just generally help you feel better and younger?

Sounds too good to believe, right? Then, add the celebrity endorsement power of Rihanna, Madonna, Adele, Kim Kardashian, Simon Cowell, along with many other talented athletes and artists who have been seen using these products and espousing their benefits on social media, and these factors combine to create a powerful strategy for IV vitamin therapy companies to promote their services.

Why does it matter if celebrities are seen on social media using your products? Let’s explore the celebrity effect upon companies.

First off, what the heck is the IV Vitamin Therapy? Intravenous (IV) therapy delivers liquid substances into a vein and is the fastest way to deliver medication, vitamins and fluids throughout the body. IV therapy began in the 1830’s and became widely used in the healthcare industry after the 1950s. IV vitamin therapy is also referred to as vitamin drips. Typically, only 40% of over-the-counter vitamins ingested orally is absorbed into your body while vitamins administered intravenously will absorb at 99.9%.

Over the last few decades, companies have begun to offer IV vitamin therapy at spas specifically designed to provide these services and with mobile services at homes or concerts. Originally marketed as a hangover cure, these companies have now expanded the appeal of their product to include remedies for allergies, anxiety, depression, fatigue, colds and flu, along with being heralded as one of next big beauty treatments.

Incredible, right? These are amazing claims, but alas, scientific research has not quite caught up to validate these claims or to evaluate the safety of regularly receiving these treatments. You should consult a medical provider prior to jumping on the Kardashian IV Therapy bandwagon.

Does seeing a celebrity using a product affect a consumer’s purchasing decision? Yes, it does. One Taiwanese study showed that consumers remembered products associated with a celebrity better than other products. If you happen to be a fan of that celebrity, you’re more likely to place a higher value on that product. Your subconscious suggests to you that using the product is a way to emulate that celebrity’s desirable traits.

Does this mean that I’m going to run to the store to get one of the newest endorsed product by Ryan Reynolds, Aviation Gin? Not necessarily. Seeing your product used on social media by a celebrity mainly builds consumer confidence, preference and brand awareness through social media — especially when your target may include the social media savvy Generation Zers and Millennials.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Remember Rihanna’s backlash at Snap Chat on Instagram? Stock prices dipped after the backlash but the company regained its losses later that week. While this only had short term effect, it does not help the company’s image in the court of public opinion, especially with losing support of an influential celebrity in Snap Chat’s targeted market segment.

Does it work?

Yes, celebrity social media endorsements do contribute to the perceived value of a product or service. According to a report from Marketwatch, a simple brand signing of a celebrity or athlete can increase sales by an average of 4%. The social media presence of a celebrity using a product contributes to consumers’ trust and brand awareness, and promotes your product while influencing consumer purchase intentions.

Is this another Kardashian endorsed prepaid credit card? Will we see a resurgence in Trump Steaks and be happily grilling them over Labor Day weekend? Or brushing our teeth with a Justin Beiber singing toothbrush with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen AquaFresh toothpaste? Hold on… having a celebrity endorsement does not guarantee your product or marketing strategy is successful.

Keep in mind that celebrity endorsements are not enough to guarantee success in attracting new consumers or gaining acceptance in an emerging market. Gaining the endorsement of Justin Beiber or Rihanna may not necessarily matter to the consumers in your targeted market segment. Companies must continue to demonstrate their value to consumers and show them how they’re providing benefits and value in real and tangible ways.

Usage: This is an editing tool to create stories on Instagram and Snapchat, allowing you to add text and upload videos. You can make stories in advance, email them to yourself, and post them when it’s convenient for you.

Features: Keeping a publishing schedule is a challenge. I like this tool to prep stories in advance.

1. Failure to Create a Strategy with Measurable Goals

In digital marketing, a well-defined strategy is not only the key to establishing a strong direction, but it is also the impetus for aligning valuable content with a target audience. If a digital marketing strategy is missing, both the customers and employees of the organization will not understand the intent of the digital marketing message. Thus, the purpose and value would be lost. Therefore, it is imperative that an organization creates and refines their digital marketing strategies and goals to help them reach their target audience, measure their results, achieve organizational growth and remain competitive in the market.

2. Targeting the Wrong Audience

When starting a new company one of the most important things that are going to determine whether you make it or not is how you will market your product to the consumer, and who you target. If you target the wrong consumer segment, it could destroy your company because consumers will not be attracted to your product. If you target the right consumer, your company could be the next Coca-Cola or Disney.

3. Not Having a User Friendly Website

Did you know that having a website that an unfriendly website design will not only reduce traffic to the website, but it also results in a negative perception of the brand? It is true. So, what does it mean to create a “user-friendly” website? For a website to be user-friendly, it must have a minimum of the following 3 key features:

1. Speed: Customers expect web pages to load in 3 seconds or less. If the response rate is slower than 3 seconds, the customer may click away from the site.

2. Design: The design of the website must be intuitive and easy navigated by someone who is new to the site.

3. Mobile Compatibility: The website must be compatible with mobile devices.

4. Marketing Across Too Many Social Platforms

Specific targeted marketing audiences likely don’t spend time on every social platform. Allocating your resources to the right platform is therefore critical to ensuring your marketing efforts aren’t spread too thin. Start by studying and understanding which social platforms are primarily used by your audience and target the message to the three of four platforms that most closely align with the audience. Keep it narrow and focused for optimal results.

5. Ignoring Negative Feedback

Business on social media helps connect business directly with customers. A business can expect positive or negative comments. All positive and negative feedback is visible to the public. Avoid the temptation to delete or ignore the comments. Business should address the negative feedback as quickly as possible. Customers will follow the company’s response and judge how quickly and effectively they respond. Customers will search for feedback prior to purchase. Social ratings are available in Google review. A company can turn a complaint into a positive experience.

6. Not Leveraging Your Data

Effective marketing campaign managers measure performance through data, research, analysis and other performance tools. Social media marketing requires a similar attention to the data to drive improved results. Social marketers can improve their performance by leveraging Google Analytics or the tools provided by the social media platform. Leverage the data to drive improved results.

This is it. The last gasp of breath from the Republican Party. The long standing cancer plaguing the party has finally overcome all the remaining vestiges of conservatism and replaced with a group of media hungry side show freaks. Enamored by their antics and hurting from being passed over in the new economy, angry and under-educated people of the U.S. flock to the loudest and most obscene of individuals because they are just desperate for a change. Sick of being talked down to and with the realization that the fruits of their labor will never be rewarded in this lifetime, many have nothing left to lose as they have already lost their American dream. This current situation should not be a surprise to anyone who has paid attention in the last decade to the advancing drumbeat of anger after the election of President Obama alongside a Libertarian undercurrent.

So how did the Republican Party get here? The 2008 election of Barack Obama stunned the Republican Party and shook it to it’s core as the outdated polling mechanisms predicted a win for Mitt Romney. The hard-line focus on socially conservative values and oppressive stances left many bored and uninspired within the walls of the party. Licking their wounds after the election, the Republican plan was to obstruct all federal government activities and to take on libertarian causes at the behest of the loudest factions of the party. In a true Machiavellian fashion, far right libertarians then asserted their power over the party through the intimidation and threat of establishment party leaders. Enabling libertarians to speak for and through the Republican establishment allowed the sentiment to get stronger as anti-government claims were repeated through conservative echo chambers on the internet and within the free media outlets catering to this narrative. This allowed the disease to fester and gain political ballot legitimization and momentum under the protection of a lifeless and gutless party. The Republican Party could have evicted these extreme members and their ideas and forced them to find their own platform and party ticket for discourse, but alas the Republican message was non-existent and over time a new conservative narrative was written for them.

The Tea Party Patriots, Minutemen, 9/12 groups, Birthers or the Sovereign Citizens have now taken over the Republican Party and devolved it into an Libertarian movement with lots of guns and whole lot of anger. This is no longer just a Libertarian movement, it may further devolve into Fascist revolutionary movement where the cult of personality of a single leader is actively encouraging the overthrowing of democratically held positions through threats, intimidation and violence. These are not just coming from a few fringe characters anymore, these are widely discussed topics about how to remove democratically elected people from public office. These Machiavellian beliefs where the ends justify the means are dangerous to democracy and to anyone who stands in their way, including other established members of the Republican Party.

With the changing demographics and global mindset of the electorate, the Republican Party may no longer be able to actively compete in national elections for president. Essentially, the Republican Party has been castrated from within because they fed a terminal cancer for years and now party insiders wondering why the treatment is not working. Go ahead and bring forth the priest for the last rites of the Republican Party. Behold, the last gasp.

As anticipated, the Republican National Convention was set to be an interesting event to say the least. But even on day one the RNC has proved to be a wild one with boycotts, chaos, alienation of many voters, and way too many reality television stars.

Lack of Support from many of the Republican current and past leaders who did not attend the event, including former Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and former presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Paul Rand of Kentucky, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Mitt Romney. 18 current senators in all are skipping the event, for some of the hilarious reasons why these senators are skipping the convention check out Fox News.

Mass chaos broke out on the floor when delegates who were supposed to be voting against Donald Trump’s nomination backed out at the last minute.

Reality TV Stars were the next best thing for speakers since there were so many who refused to speak on behalf of Trump. This result was 1994’s MTV reality television series The Real World: San Francisco couple Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy (House of Representatives from Wisconsin), along with Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty spoke on behalf of Trump.

A ‘shameful, hellish’ benediction is what many on social media are calling pastor Mark Burns’ speech as he stated, “And Republicans, we got to be united, because our enemy is not other Republicans- but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.” Lets ask ourselves how that is going to unite the country and ‘Make America Great Again’?

With three more days to go for the RNC, it’s sure to continue to be eventful with Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and many more still left to speak!

Melania Trump, wife of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump waves as she speaks during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Donald Trump has likely chosen Republican Mike Pence as his Vice President running mate. Here’s what you need to know about Mike Pence.

Quick Facts:

Michael Richard “Mike” Pence, born June 7, 1959

Family: wife Karen Pence, one son, two daughters

Religion: Evangelicalism

Attorney who graduated from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1986

Served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001- 2013

Governor of Indiana since 2013

Ran against John Boehner in 2006 for the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, lost by a large margin

In 2008, he was listed as one of the top ten legislators by Esquire Magazine

Has been listed as a potential running mate for both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections

Part of the Tea Party Movement

S. House committee assignments have included: Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Africa, Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. (This experience is likely to help Trump’s short comings in foreign policy)

Supporter of earmark reform

Secured earmarks for the ‘Transit Acquisition and Intermodal Facility Project,’ construction of a park in Portland, inclusion in a bill for labor-health and human services

Co-sponsor of the 2011 spending limit amendment to the U.S. Constition

In support of increased border security, laws against hiring illegal immigrants and guest worker programs

Supported the Iraq Resolution

Opposes closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Has supported Israel on a number of occasions and considers them to be “America’s most cherished ally”

Is in opposition of LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, civil unions, Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, and aid money intended to go towards preventing the spread of the HIV virus

Is strongly against reproductive rights for women

May keep Trump in check! Pence has been vocal at saying Trump’s Muslim ban is a terrible idea